Germany has great potential for branded entertainment in TV, film and online. Branded entertainment has become popular because companies can organically integrate their products and brand messaging directly into the content and then create unique and innovative global consumer marketing and promotional campaigns.

In April 2010 the law for branded entertainment and product placement has been revised in Germany in terms of opening the law for more opportunities. Thus, German companies have only started to investigate the many profitable possibilities of integration compared to the US and UK market, where branded entertainment is part of the advertising for a very long time. Therefore these branded entertainment markets are already very large and robust.

Branded content is allowed in sports and non-informational TV channels as well as in 'light entertainment' productions.

There are still some restrictions given by the government, which regulate branded entertainment. Therefore it is not allowed to promote any brand obviously in news programs, children’s programmes as well as counselors and consumer programmes.

More than 300 selected guests and journalists were invited to the birthday party.

We teased the public with a trailer, social media postings and a microsite on which people could vote for the avenge to happen at all, name the ship and watch the event via livestream.

On the big day, the bottle was prominently placed in the Hamburg harbour next to the party location. Spectators were also able to witness the christening at the quay wall. Those who couldn’t make it to the harbor, were able to follow via live stream.

To finally release the ship, we installed an SMS-driven countdown and asked people on location to cast the last 50 votes. Then the ship smashed against the bottle and it broke spectacularly. A firework delighted guests and spectators.

Also, a limited edition of Pommery champagne bottles was served at the event and sold in Hawesko’s online shop.

300 customers, partners and friends of Hawesko as well as celebrities joined the party which was a great success for Hawesko.

Thousands of spectators witnessed the christening at the quay wall, filmed the event and shared it via Social Media. Another thousands followed via the live stream.

The documentary film of the event was covered by newspapers, blogs, TV and radio stations all over the world. The first day after the event, 1.64 million TV viewers watched the film and more than 300 online portals with a total reach of more than 350 million visits shared it.

The media equivalent value only for TV reached an impressive amount of €154,000 - at the first day after the event.

Hawesko became known as the avenger of champagne, it reached its communication goals and exceeded all expectations.